While the percentage of men in the workforce slid to 74 percent in 2006, a half percent drop from the year before, the trend for women earners reads differently.

According to the Korea National Statistical office on Tuesday, last year more than one in two women was earning money.

The census official pointed to a higher number of women becoming professionals and higher ratio of female students enrolling in college as two of the factors that support women's rising status in Korean society today.

And as more women take on jobs and become financially independent marriage has increasingly taken a backseat.

The average age for Korean women to tie the knot is now 28, about four years later than for their peers in 1976.

And the traditional older-man-younger-woman couple is no longer a trend it once was as an increasing percentage of women marry partners who are younger.

Among all couples to marry last year 30 percent were the same age or with an older woman.

While data may not always speak the truth, the latest data definitely shows that women's voice in society is getting louder.

Arirang News